Backscattered polarization patterns, optical vortices, and the angular momentum of light

    Authors

    C. Schwartz;A. Dogariu

    Comments

    Authors: contact us about adding a copy of your work at STARS@ucf.edu

    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Opt. Lett.

    Keywords

    LIDAR MULTIPLE-SCATTERING; MEDIA; PHOTON; ANISOTROPY; CLOUDS; PHASE; BEAMS; Optics

    Abstract

    We demonstrate that the polarization patterns observed in backscattering of linearly polarized light are a manifestation of the conservation of angular momentum of light. We will show that this phenomenon can be described in terms of phase vortices that are acquired by the right and left circularly polarized components. The helicity and orbital angular momentum of these components satisfy the requirement for conservation of angular momentum. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America.

    Journal Title

    Optics Letters

    Volume

    31

    Issue/Number

    8

    Publication Date

    1-1-2006

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    1121

    Last Page

    1123

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000236622000032

    ISSN

    0146-9592

    Share

    COinS